In its 55 years, the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival has become a premier showcase for artists from around the nation.

This year's event, which runs from Friday-Sunday in downtown Winter Park, will feature 225 professional artists selling their works and competing for coveted awards.

But throughout its history, it has also featured another talented group — local student artists. This year, more than 6,000 student artists from elementary, middle and high schools all around Orange County will be displaying their work alongside the professionals before a crowd that's expected to exceed 350,000 over the three days of the event.

The student works — enough to fill eight tents — will be on display in the north part of Central Park, behind the post office.

Among those working toward a spot at the festival are teacher Kris Finn's art students at Orlando's Blankner School.

"It changes the way they process how important their work is," Finn, who's had students exhibiting at the festival for more than a decade, said of the prospect of reaching that kind of audience. "You see a lot of confidence, and some kids are actually marketing their art when they get to high school."

Her seventh- and eighth-grade students are working on 16-by-20-inch canvases to create paintings with a "Creatures" theme.

They've come up with "everything from Gothic horror stuff to little bunny rabbits," Finn said. During a recent class the students bustled around the room, dolloping acrylic paint on their palettes — actually styrofoam plates — and working to replicate their sketches in paint. In addition to having a shot at the Winter Park festival, their works will be on display at a school show, and will serve as the students' final exams.

Seventh-grader Madeline Renda's painting, inspired by Japanese Manga art, depicts a crouching long-haired girl who looks almost human, until you notice the spiky tail.

"I want her to look kind of innocent but also kind of creepy," she said.

Madeline, whose mother is a former muralist, hopes to be a Disney animator when she grows up.

Eighth-grader Abigail Smith also hopes to use her artistic talents in a future career, possibly as an architect. A collage she made in elementary school was displayed at an earlier sidewalk festival, and she's hoping to return this year with a painting of a butterfly against a bright orange and yellow backdrop.

"I didn't want to do something that was gory or alienlike," she said.

Finn expects 15 or 20 of her 120 students' paintings will make the festival. And she wouldn't be surprised to see some of her students back at the Winter Park festival in future years as professionals.

"My hope is that this will always be a part of their lives, because they know it's something they can always do," she said. "There are some strong painters in here."